Monday, June 23, 2008

We already know that he supports the troops - but only as long as they stay in Iraq. Once they come home John McCain doesn't seem to care so much anymore. He even opposed expanding the G.I. Bill, which gives college tuition and other benefits to war veterans. His logic is that if all those soldiers know that there was more money waiting for them when they finish their tours of duty, why they might actually want to come home, and we can't have that now can we?

When it was time to vote on a bill to raise the federal minimum wage, John McCain took part in a filibuster to keep it from happening. Our federal minimum wage is currently $5.85 an hour - about $1,000 a month. I wonder if he seriously thinks one person can support themselves on $1,000 a month. I mean theoretically you could - if you don't ever do anything fun, don't drive a car, don't put too much away in a savings account, don't eat much, don't ever get sick, and don't have to pay rent because you own your own cardboard box. If you did all of those things, you might just be able to get by.

John McCain opposed giving health insurance to low-income children. Now, this is not universal health insurance for all Americans, here. This is not even health insurance for all American children. This was for poor kids whose parents might not otherwise be able to send them to the doctor. But McCain doesn't think kids need to go the doctor! When he was their age, his parents just gave him a little bit of whiskey grandpa's cough medicine, and if that was good enough for him then by God it's good for everyone else!

Incidentally, his views on all three of those issues are right in line with those of our current Moron-In-Chief, the self-declared "compassionate conservative". Now, do these sound like the decisions of a compassionate person? I think not. Personally, I think they sound more like the decisions of the sort of individual who might do things in like kick puppies for fun in his spare time - but that's just my opinion. In any case, the only thing McCain's got going for him here is that at least he hasn't tried to label himself "compassionate" yet. Granted, he has shown us that the term "straight talk" can also be used to mean "hey guys, there's a whole bunch of stuff I'm not telling you", so he may yet sink to Bush's level.